Programme full

Thursday 16 April 2015 15:30 - 17:00
PAPER SESSION 6 / PECHA KUCHA SESSIONS
and widespread rent arrears. Where tenants did downsize they rationalised the move as 'making a fresh start' which at
the same time left them 'grieving for a lost home', to use Fried's (1963) expression.
Most of the tenants interviewed were long term residents, and while they considered the possibility of downsizing
many were absolutely unwilling to move outside of the estate, showing a strong attachment to place. This presentation
considers the complex reasons for such attachment and extends Standing's concept of 'precarity' to social housing,
showing that the 'bedroom tax' alongside other housing, welfare and labour market changes is undermining and
eroding security of tenure for vulnerable social housing tenants, threatening their established way of life and
generating considerable material and ontological insecurity.
The Perpetuation of Poverty in the UK during the Age of Austerity: The Charity Sector Examined
Fuhr, C., Cohen, S.
(University of Cambridge & Woolf Institute)
The 2007-08 financial crisis has produced a recession in Europe not seen since the Great Depression. It has
provoked governments to implement drastic public sector cuts, building on anti-welfare measures initiated in the late
1990s. The subsequent rise in poverty has corresponded with the expansion of social initiatives in the United
Kingdom. Using the method of ethnography paper explores how staff and volunteers in foodbanks, soup kitchens and
homeless shelters, as well as in referral agencies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau define basic needs and how
they help their users to meet those needs. This analysis will illustrate that while community-oriented charities widely
define basic needs, their responses to fulfilling users' basic needs remains narrowly defined. Interviewees from both
types of initiatives highlight the problem of charities in providing emergency relief rather than holistic long-term support
in alleviating the socio-economic situation of vulnerable citizens. In addition, members of referral agencies recognise
the difficulty in providing immediate and sustaining support for their clients because of the compartmentalisation of the
charity sector. While the government addresses food poverty in its policy discussions, it fails to recognise that food
poverty is part of general poverty overall. Accordingly, the paper suggests that the compartmentalisation of poverty by
charities and the ignorance of its complexity by the government and policy-makers perpetuate socio-economic
deprivation in British society.
Culture, Media, Sport and Consumption – Pecha Kucha
W110, HAMISH WOOD BUILDING
Media Representation of Social Class in Contemporary Britain: Content and Control
Wagner, B.
(Manchester Metropolitan University)
Social class is very much an issue in contemporary British factual entertainment television. However, class and
closely related issues like inequality and social justice rarely enter the discourse in an explicit way. Perceptions of
social class and class conflict inform media representations, but tend to be repeated and reinforced rather than
scrutinised and challenged. In my PhD research, I analyse the docusoap "People Like Us" (BBC) that was aired in
early 2013. My analysis focuses on the question as to what degree those representations have a classed character
and if so, what the implications of this class-bias are.
Using a Bourdieusian framework, I relate my empirical findings to questions of access, power and control. I will argue
that the Bourdieusian concept of doxa, is well suited to analyse how social inequalities are played out in media
discourses. Doxic or shared, unscrutinised and partly unconscious assumptions powerfully structure attitudes. Media
representation are, I will argue, dialectically linked to those beliefs.
The empirical part of my study looks at the content of classed media production as well as at their perception.
Questions of access, influence and control are discussed to gain an understanding if or how reality TV programmes
like "People Like Us" contribute to the reproduction of social inequalities.
Charlie is So Cool Like: Inclusive Masculinity and Popularity on YouTube
Morris, M., Anderson, E.
(Durham University)
On the world's most utilised video-sharing social networking site, YouTube, Charlie McDonnell (Charlieissocoollike),
Dan Howell (Danisnotonfire), and Jack and Finn Harries (JacksGap) are Britain's most popular video-bloggers
BSA Annual Conference 2015 200
Glasgow Caledonian University